(The following editorial appeared on the Victoria Advocate website on November 23.)
VICTORIA, Texas — Ever since the “iron horse” first made tracks across an America just emerging from its infancy, the railroads have sometimes been seen as cold, uncaring giants, and the image of the aloof railroad barons, although changed somewhat in recent times to a picture of aloof corporate behemoths, has been slow to die.
That’s why it is so refreshing to us to see one railroad, Kansas City Southern, taking a serious step toward protecting the people who live along a new part of its rail system now being built east of Victoria.
The KCS tracks will cross the one and only existing entrance/exit to the Brentwood subdivision, and that would block access to those homes by emergency vehicles when a train is crossing.
In cases of heart attack or severe trauma, the time lost by EMS crews waiting on a train to clear the entrance could cost lives. And a chemical spill on the rails could be disastrous if residents could not get away quickly.
And that’s where the railroad has shown itself to be a splendid corporate neighbor. It is going to help with the construction of an emergency second road into and out of the Brentwood area. The road would be blocked by locked gates most of the time, but will be quickly opened when it is needed, for evacuations necessitated by chemical spills, or by ambulances or fire trucks needed in the area.
“It’s certainly something that Kansas City Southern doesn’t have to do,” Victoria County Judge Don Pozzi told Advocate reporter David Tewes. “We’re very grateful they are taking care of some of those safety issues.”
Certainly we would echo Judge Pozzi’s sentiments, and pass along a well-deserved “attaboy” to County Commissioner Wayne Dierlam, who worked with property owners to get land dedicated for the emergency road, and to the leadership of Kansas City Southern, who not only won some friends in Brentwood, but also helped to ensure their safety far into the future.